Can Digital Ever Be As Good As Film

Digital and Film are done completely differently. However, there are cameras out there that are almost as good as movies, for example, did you know while Spy Kids was shot on film, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams was shot on HD Video?

Quality

Video vs Film - Cost

Image Quality

While cost plays a major role in the use of video vs. film, the most major bone of contention comes from the way each medium captures and displays imagery. Because film simply captures light waves its creating lines of depth and color, so it looks smooth and soft when projected, even at large sizes.

Digital video has a native resolution and is made up of pixels, so it’s sharper than film and it has more of a rigid appearance. When you increase or decrease the resolution of any digital file you start to see interpolation, which is when the computer mathematically re-interprets the pixels in an image and either adds new ones to make up for a larger size, or takes them away when the resolution becomes smaller.

Since a pixel (which, by the way, is short for ‘picture element’) is essentially a tiny square containing a single color, an increase an image’s output size without actually changing the number of pixels it contains will result in pixelation – your eye will more easily recognize the presence of pixels in the image.

Cost

 Video vs Film - Cost

Film is Expensive – Video is Not

Whereas film needs to be developed and have light shone through it in order to be projected, video is captured on magnetic tape and scanned back over a playhead. Whether the tape itself is analog or digital, the process of taping is fundamentally a digital thing, which means it can only reach a certain resolution before it starts to degrade in quality. Film, on the other hand, can become as large as the distance from projector to screen (determined somewhat by the strength of the projector) allows.

The average indie filmmaker doesn’t use film because, well, it costs a lot of money. If you’re old enough you may remember the days before digital cameras became commonplace and you used to have to load rolls of 35mm film into your camera to take pictures. When the roll was done, you’d have to wind it back into its casing, take it out and get it developed.

Nowadays it seems like a foreign concept to have to wait to look at your pictures, doesn’t it? A roll of camera film containing 24 or 36 exposures used to cost around $3-5 to buy and another $3-5 to develop.

Now stop. Think about that for a second; think about a roll of 24 pictures of film costing even $2.

Using a film camera, 24 frames of film is one second of screen time. One. Second. Multiply $2 by 60, and then by 90. That’s to say, if you roll camera and cut camera at the exact instant you start and end your scene, do only one take of each shot, and film a full-length 90-minute movie, that film alone at $2 a second costs you $10,800. So in a monetary sense, the difference between film and video is huge.

You probably don’t have that much money to spend on even 90 minutes of film, let alone the amount of film it would actually take after you cut the outtakes, pre-roll, post-roll, and any deleted scenes or B-roll footage. If you do have that kind of cash, you’re either incredibly rich, crazy, or you have investors who believe very strongly in your directing skills. So let’s go with you using video instead of film.

Professional Videos

Tips for professional videos
1) Good camera
Same as below,  widescreen and high quality, possibly HD.
2) Letterbox?
Many films nowadays actually have a letterbox screen by default at the top and bottom despite being in widescreen. Try it
3) Colours
Try changing the colours a bit
If you're in a dark city, wash the colours out, increase the blues,
if you're in the country chasing rabbits, turn up the greens.
Even try colour correction
4) 24 frames per second please!
Frames per second, is the number of frames or pictures that make up a moving image per second. A lot of video cameras shoot at higher framerates of 30 or 60 while film cameras typically shoot at 24 or 23.973 to be precise. This is why video appears 'smoother', while it may look good with some things, for a movie, it just looks wrong, put it on 24p and your footage straightaway will appear more professional.

What People Look For On YouTube

Okay,
so you want to start making videos for YouTube?
Now we've all seen those socially awkward geeks with a funny voice talking into a 240p cell phone camera drowned in background noise. This is the top thing people don't want to see.

Steps for making good videos:

1) Camera quality is everything
Make sure your camera is of good enough quality. Often having a 720p and possibly even 1080p video options can be a key towards your videos being professional
2) 16:9! No letterbox
Almost everyone popular YouTuber on the net has a widescreen camera, so if you're filming, check to see you're filming in widescreen, if you're unsure, either look for a 16:9 option, as appose to 4:3, or playback the video. 4:3 has letterbox at the sides. 16:9 will have none, or a small letterbox at the top and bottom.
3) Cuts are good
Don't worry about getting it perfect first time round, just leave the camera rolling, and say each thing a couple of times and pick which you like best, jumps in movement between each clip doesn't matter, many vloggers do it and it looks fine
4) Background music?
This is optional, but background music helps create a whole new feel to the video

Hey guys

Hey guys!
Thought I'd make this little blog to show you how to get the best out of making videos both professional and for YouTube!